Life hadn't changed much for the senior partners at Fuckwit and Moron in the years since they qualified...
So, you are looking to develop your business development capabilities. You can take your smart, knowledgeable professionals and inject them with some commercial acumen; provide them with a “business development process”, dangle a carrot or two and watch them go….
The main focus of this book / blog is to help you navigate your way through that process, BUT, there may come a time when you may need to bring in some new help. Yes, I’m talking about hiring….
If you are a small professional services company, how do you hire someone to come into your business and sell it with the same passion as you?
You can’t – so don’t try!!
Don’t try and hire someone like you.
The whole premise of this book is that the best professional services salesmen tend to be the best practitioners of professional services: it is often simply portrayed in their body language. Clients will ask themselves “can this person do the assignment” and the answer needs to be yes! So, wherever you are in your staff development, you must always try to encourage your consultants to sell and develop business.
However, you will need to hire at some time (I need to right now at the moment!) and so what questions should you ask:
1. Ask about priorities – client vs lead
2. Ask about process – let them explain a process they have successfully used (you may be able to inherit one here so keep an open mind!)
3. What, in their opinion, is the best marketing tool (we know the answer, do you think they will get it?)
4. How would they prepare for a conference?
5. Do they have a philosophy for professional services sales
6. Key differences between professional services sales and equipment/product sales.
There are more here – write them down; answer them yourself and compare answers. Don’t expect a full score and prepare to question them and challenge them.
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